Writing Research Papers - A presentation by William Badke

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke
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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Research papers are often required of students in
  higher education.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Many students share a common idea about the task
  of writing a research paper

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Many students share a common idea about the task
  of writing a research paper
• Choose a topic

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Many students share a common idea about the task
  of writing a research paper
• Choose a topic
• Do research on the topic

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Many students share a common idea about the task
  of writing a research paper
• Choose a topic
• Do research on the topic
• Write an essay based on your research

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Yet the comments from the professor may be
  disappointing
• "No research question"
  Too general" or "Not sufficiently
  narrow""Improper use of sources"
  "Much of this material appears to be
  plagiarized""Inadequate bibliography"
  "No journal articles"

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Topic SelectionMost topics you start with are
  too broad to be useful research papers.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Topic SelectionIf you leave a topic broad, it
  will be superficial.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Consider this illustration
• If your topic is narrow, you can deal with it in
  depth. If your topic is broad, you will deal
  with it only in a shallow way.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Thus you want to avoid a broad survey in a
  research paper.
• Instead, focus on a narrow topic so you can deal
  with it in depth.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• For example, instead of writing a history of the
  development of industrialization in Korea
• Narrow the topic to "The effect of the Asian
  financial crisis of the late 1990s on automobile
  manufacturing in Korea."

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• The Research QuestionA research essay is
  intended to allow you to answer a question or
  controversy related to the topic you are studying.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• How can a student develop a proper research
  question?
• Narrow your topic.
• Use reference sources or portions of books to
  discover aspects of the topic that are
  controversial or need investigation.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Develop a few possible research questions based
  on what you find in reference sources. These
  should be one sentence questions that are simple
  and clear.
• Choose one of these questions to be the research
  question for your essay.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Every research essay should have only one
  research question. You do not want to have an
  essay that states, "The following paper will
  examine __________ and will also _____________
  and will also ____________." 

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• ExampleBroad Topic "The history of industrial
  development in Korea."
• Narrow Topic "The history of the automobile
  industry in Korea during the Asian Financial
  Crisis of the late 1990s."
• Research Question "Did the  Asian Financial
  Crisis of the late 1990s bring harm to the
  automobile industry in Korea or did it bring
  benefit?"

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Example
• Broad Topic "Constantine" (Roman emperor of the
  300s AD)
• Narrow Topic The Conversion of Constantine."
• Research Question "Was the conversion of
  Constantine real?"

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Example
• Broad Topic "Euthanasia" (helping very ill
  people to end their lives)
• Narrow Topic "Euthanasia in the Netherlands."
• Research Question "What evidence is there, if
  any, from the Netherlands that legalizing
  euthanasia causes a society to value human life
  less?

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Structure of a Research Paper
• A research paper has the following parts
• Introduction Provides background information
  about the issue you are dealing with and allows
  you to state a research question or thesis.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Structure of a Research Paper
• A research paper has the following parts
• The Body The main discussion of the issue,
  broken down into parts to help the reader
  understand your line of thought.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Structure of a Research Paper
• A research paper has the following parts
• The Conclusion Summarizes your research and
  answers your research question.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Examples of Structure"Did the  Asian Financial
  Crisis of the late 1990s bring harm or benefit to
  the automobile industry in Korea?"
• I. IntroductionII. Initial Effect on the
  Automobile IndustryIII. Later Effect on the
  Automobile IndustryIV. Was the Effect Positive
  or Negative?V. Conclusion

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• "Was the religious conversion of Constantine
  real?"
• I. IntroductionII. Arguments that the conversion
  was realIII. Arguments that the conversion was
  not realIV. Conclusion

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• "What evidence is there, if any, from the
  Netherlands euthanasia experience that legalizing
  euthanasia causes a society to value human life
  less?
• I. IntroductionII. The Laws that Control
  Euthanasia in the NetherlandsIII. Actual use of
  Euthanasia Laws in the NetherlandsIV. Is there
  evidence that Doctors are going beyond the
  Controls of the Euthanasia Laws?V. Conclusion

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Should you Use the Words of Others or Your Own
  Words? 
• Some students get confused about what a professor
  wants. You are to do research, but if you simply
  copy information the books and articles, you are
  committing plagiarism.If you use only your own
  ideas, then you are not doing research that uses
  other peoples writing.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• The professor does want you to read the books
  and articles of other people. The research essay
  is supposed to make use of that research to
  present your own analysis and arguments. But
  how can a student use the work of others if
  he/she is not allowed to quote their work?

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• You are allowed to quote from the things you
  have read, but there are definite rules for doing
  this

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• The quotations should be short (usually 5 lines
  or less) and few. My own suggestion is to have no
  more than one short quotation per page of your
  essay. 
• Quotations must have quotation marks (" ") around
  them or be put in an indented block (for longer
  quotations) to make it clear that they are
  quotations.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• All quotations must have a note (footnote,
  endnote, or short note) attached to them so that
  its very clear what source you are quoting.
  Every item quoted must also be in your
  bibliography. 
• You cannot just quote long paragraphs without
  using quotation marks and then adding a citation,
  footnote or endnote indicating what source you
  used.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Most of your work is to be in your own words.
  This means

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Most of your work is to be in your own words.
  This meansThat you show you have understood
  what you are reading by interpreting it in your
  own words. 
• That you are not just paraphrasing. Paraphrasing
  involves rewriting each sentence of something you
  have read, changing the wording a little bit.
  This is not enough to make the material "your own
  words."

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Most of your work is to be in your own words.
  This meansThat you show that you can interpret
  what the writer is saying without needing to use
  many of the writers words.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• To avoid plagiarism, do not try to rewrite an
  authors sentences in your own words. You will
  almost always use too many of that authors
  words.
• Instead, read the authors words and interpret
  what they mean. Then write down your
  interpretation.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• The professor is mainly interested in seeing how
  well YOU have understood the material. Professors
  do not want you simply to repeat what youve read
  but to interpret what youve read, expressing
  your own understanding in your own words.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• But what if other writers have already expressed
  their thoughts in better ways than you could ever
  use? Why not just copy their words?
• Because that would be plagiarism.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• What is Plagiarism?

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• What is Plagiarism?
• Plagiarism is using another writers words or
  unique ideas as if they were your own.  The
  professor believes those are your own words or
  ideas, because you have not shown that they came
  from someone else. 

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• What is Plagiarism?
• This means that plagiarism is fraud pretending
  that the words or ideas in your research paper
  are yours, when they actually came from someone
  else.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Types of plagiarism
• Quoting from a book or article or web site
  without using quotation marks and a note to tell
  the reader who wrote the quoted material.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Types of plagiarism
• Presenting an idea as if you were the one who
  thought of it, when you actually got that idea
  from a book or article or web site (the exception
  is when that idea is part of common knowledge
  found in many pieces of writing).

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Why is plagiarism so serious a problem?
• The main reason why academic institutions punish
  plagiarism so strictly is that it is dishonesty,
  the telling of a lie.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• How would a professor find out that I
  plagiarized?
• Professors usually first see that some of the
  writing in a paper is in a different style from
  the students other writing, which is usually a
  sign that the student is using words from another
  author.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• How would a professor find out that I
  plagiarized?
• With the number of electronic searching tools we
  have today, professors can quite easily identify
  work taken from web sites, articles and even some
  books.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• What, then, is the best way to use research from
  other authors?

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• What, then, is the best way to use research from
  other authors?
• Quote only when something an author has said
  really explains well what you are trying to say.
  Quotations should be short, and there should be
  few of them.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• Final Words                                     
       
• The goal of the research essay is not to gather
  information and report on it. Research essays are
  assigned so that you can study a certain topic,
  develop a research question, and answer it using
  the materials you have studied plus your own
  analysis.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• The professor wants to see that you are thinking
  through an issue, not simply explaining or
  quoting what you have read.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• The information you discover in your research is
  thus only the foundation, the first part, of the
  task. What is more important is your ability to
  use that information to advance the worlds
  knowledge.

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• For more information on writing research papers,
  see the first appendix to
• William Badke, Research Strategies Finding your
  Way through the Information Fog, 5th ed.
  (Lincoln, NE iUniverse.com, 2014),
• and the web site related to this PowerPoint
• http//www.acts.twu.ca/lbr/research_essays.htm

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Writing Research Papers - A presentation by
William Badke

• And
• William Badke. Writing Research Essays A Guide
  for Students of all Nations.
• http//acts.twu.ca/library/Research_Essays.htm